RALEIGH, N.C. — The Rangers will wake up on Thanksgiving with many things to be grateful for, and this gift of a victory is one of them.
On a night when Brady Skjei said “it just seemed like everything was going our way,” the Rangers grabbed a 6-1 victory over the sloppy Hurricanes at PNC Arena on Wednesday. With some early brilliance from Henrik Lundqvist, and two goals apiece from Chris Kreider and
Jesper Fast, the Rangers were able to wrap up just their third road win of the season.
And they did it without captain Ryan McDonagh, who is sidelined at least through the weekend with a “mild strain” in his abdomen.
“It was just a very simple game,” said Skjei, who carried quite a load in McDonagh’s absence, playing a stout 20:35. “Our defense played solid, and Hank played great again. Just another one of those games.”
The Rangers (11-9-2) were far from perfect, especially in the first period, when Lundqvist saw 17 shots and allowed only Sebastian Aho’s power-play one-timer to beat him. But the Hurricanes (9-7-4) were defensively disjointed throughout, leaving large swaths of ice open directly in front of goalie Scott Darling — who didn’t make things any easier for himself when he allowed a blooper-reel goal, whiffing on the catch of a center-ice, flip-in from Mika Zibanejad that went in to make it 2-0 just 2:26 into the game.
“I started laughing,” Zibanejad said. “But good to get the win. A good feeling.”
The first period was not the Rangers’ best, but they were still able to get out of it with a 3-1 lead when Zibanejad’s fluke was sandwiched by a goal from Kreider just 52 seconds in and one at 10:47 from Paul Carey, his first as a Ranger. That was supplemented by Lundqvist making two separate outstanding saves of Jordan Staal, the second a glove-hand grab from his stomach at 11:56, the best of his 31 overall.
“That’s all part of it,” coach Alain Vigneault said. “Our goalie made some big saves, and after that, we did a real good job in front of him. That’s just part of the team game that we needed and that we got.”
Carolina then crumbled in the third, as Kreider got a power-play jam-shot 20 seconds in, followed by two goals from Fast at 5:45 and 12:26, just overtaking the lifeless ’Canes. But most promising was the fact that the Rangers didn’t look lost without their captain — something that was hardly overlooked inside the dressing room.
“I think that’s where the door opens, you get a little bit more opportunity, a little bit more ice time,” Brendan Smith said from under the Broadway Hat, after having been scratched for eight of the team’s first 19 games but collecting a great assist on Kreider’s first goal while playing what Vigneault called his “best game of the year.”
“It’s just one game,” Smith said. “Hopefully we get Mac back as soon as possible, but if not, we have enough back there to fill the role.”
The Rangers’ roller coaster of a season is now more than a quarter over, and consistency is hardly their forte. Even within this one game, at times they looked offensively dynamic and fast, with the Hurricanes having awful gap control, but the Rangers making tape-to-tape passes that ended in goals. Yet at other times, they treated the puck like a hand grenade, as when Vigneault didn’t see Zibanejad’s goal because he was reaming out Kevin Shattenkirk on the bench for one of his handful of turnovers.
But when they were handed the opportunity to bury a wounded team, they did just that.
“We came ready to play,” Vigneault said, and now they’re ready to enjoy the holiday.